Tag: anthologies

I’m not sure where this month has gone. I’ve been meaning to write this post all year. Better late than never.

2016 was an amazing year for my productivity. I wrote ten short stories (more than ever in a single year!), made some good headway into my previously-languishing novel, and sent out 120 submissions. That’s about three times as many as the previous year. As a result of all that writing and submitting, I have more current subs out than I’ve ever had at once, which makes me feel like I’m doing this writing thing properly.

I also had four publications: two originals and two reprints, which is nice and symmetrical. My stories ‘Her Glimmering Facade’ and ‘Candy Comfort’ appeared in Deep Magic and Daily Science Fiction respectively. ‘Daddy’s Girl’ was reissued in glorious audio form at The Overcast, while ‘Rule of Five’ had its third publication in the all-female horror anthology Killing It Softly.

‘Candy Comfort’ and ‘Her Glimmering Facade’ are both awards eligible this year. If you’re reading for awards, I’d love you to consider them. ‘Candy Comfort’ is available to read for free via the link above, and as ‘Facade’ is behind a paywall, I’d be happy to send a copy to anyone who’s planning to vote. Just let me know in the comments.

2017 is off to a good start, as I’ve already written four flash stories and sent out thirteen subs. Let’s start as we mean to go on!

Wow, I seem to be all about the promo at the moment. I’m certainly not complaining that I’ve been able to announce a new publication for three consecutive months. That is fricking awesome. *grin* But I always intended this blog to contain other stuff too… writerly ramblings, pedantry, geekiness.

I’ll get back to that stuff. Promise.

But in the meantime, Killing It Softly, the all-female horror anthology featuring my story, ‘Rule of Five’, is now out!

This is my fifteenth fiction publication. Fifteen. *checks again to be sure* Yep. Amazing. It’s my second anthology sale. And it’s the third time ‘Rule of Five’ has been published. That little story has certainly done me proud. As I’ve mentioned before, it was the first story I ever sold. I love the fact that it’s still with me now, making sales and getting promoted, like a faithful friend along for the ride.

This is a story about OCD, a term that is bandied about far too often with complete disregard for its real implications. Having particular standards isn’t OCD. Liking things a certain way isn’t OCD. That ‘D’ stands for ‘disorder’, and those things are not disorders. If this story in any way manages to shed some light on what it feels like to have obsessive compulsive disorder, I’m happy.

It’s also scary. It is a horror story, after all.

And in the lead-up to Halloween, the Kindle version of the anthology is available for only 99 cents! After that, it goes up to $5.99, so I highly recommend grabbing a terrific bargain while you can. There are 32 stories here, written by some amazingly talented women. All for 99 cents, people. What are you waiting for?

It’s time to get spooky. Snuggle up on the couch, keep the lights on, and get reading.

This year’s Campbell Anthology is here! Up and Coming: Stories by the 2016 Campbell-Eligible Authors is now available to download for free, for a limited time only. This amazing collection of stories features 120 authors and over a million words of SF&F short fiction. It will only be available until the end of March, so grab it while you can!

The John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer is an annual award given to the best new writer whose first professionally published science fiction or fantasy work has appeared in the previous two years. It’s nominated and chosen at the same time as the Hugo awards, and announced at each year’s Worldcon. I’m in my second (and final) year of eligibility following my first professional sale (my story ‘Daddy’s Girl’, to Crossed Genres) in 2014.

Up and Coming contains three of my previously published stories: ‘Daddy’s Girl’, ‘Pawprints in the Aeolian Dust’, and ‘Fibonacci’. Those three little stories are in some incredible company, with works from some of the most happening FSF writers in the field. I’m delighted to be sharing a table of contents with these talented people, among whom is my dear friend Emma Osborne, who’s also in her second year of Campbell eligibility.

Click on that link and download yourself a mindblowing collection of fiction that’ll cost you absolutely nothing and provide you with reading material for months. If you have an active Worldcon membership, you can nominate and vote, and if you don’t, you can get a taste of what’s happening in the marvellous world of today’s speculative fiction.

First up in anthology news, Flash Fiction Online’s 2015 anthology, featuring my story ‘Fibonacci’, is now available! It contains over thirty stories by a wide variety of authors, all available for the price of a cup of coffee, or a large portion of chips, or a jar of Marmite, or an average-price greetings card. You know, whatever you’d usually spend a couple of quid on. I’m currently reading the anthology, and it’s fabulous. Such a wonderful range of stories! And as they’re all 1000 words or fewer, it’s so easy to dip in and read a quick story when you’ve got a spare five minutes. I’m having a lot of fun working my way through them all, and I highly recommend the read.

Secondly, Hear Me Roar, which includes my story ‘The Fruits of Revolution’, is a finalist for the Aurealis Award for Best Anthology! Very exciting… can’t wait for the results on the 25th of March. If you haven’t yet grabbed yourself a copy and want to find out why it’s a deserving finalist, all Ticonderoga paperbacks are currently 20% off when ordered through their site. It’s also available via Amazon (Kindle and paperback), Barnes & Noble (Nook and paperback) and Book Depository.

So what are you waiting for? Go treat yourself to a couple of awesome story collections already! And enjoy the wild ride.

Look, everyone! Ticonderoga Publications have revealed the cover art for Hear Me Roar, the anthology in which my story, ‘The Fruits of Revolution’, will be appearing:

Mmm… I love it. Gorgeous, evocative, wistful. Don’t you just want to take a road trip with that biker chick? Somehow, it feels like that’s exactly what the cover’s inviting you to do. Enter here for a kick-ass journey of adventure and discovery…

It’ll be released in August, with a sneak preview in June, if you happen to be in Melbourne. And if you’re suitably tantalised by the cover, there’s more info and pre-ordering available here.

I’m delighted to announce my first sale of 2015! My story, ‘The Fruits of Revolution’, will be appearing in an upcoming anthology, ‘Hear Me Roar’, from Aussie publisher Ticonderoga Publications and edited by Liz Grzyb. The anthology, due for release in June, features ’17 incredible tales of strong women’, ranging across the FSF genres, and I’m really excited to be included among the authors.

‘The Fruits of Revolution’ is a dystopian cyberpunk story told from the POV of one of my favourite characters I’ve written to date. I had a lot of fun writing it. It was one of those stories that took charge all on its own and surprised me in the telling. I had the idea, the premise, the setting, the protagonist, but the plot developed organically as it went along. I wish more stories worked like that. I guess this story taught me that if you have a solid foundation, sometimes you can just trust the wheels you’ve set in motion and let them take you where they will. That’s how it went with this one. And now it’s found an awesome home in a spectacular anthology that I’m very proud to be a part of.